MORI, Ascanio de'.

Prima parte delle Novelle.

      First edition of these short stories. Ascanio de' Mori was born in 1533. He was a client of the Gonzagas of Mantua and a close friend of G. B. Cavallara, the very distinguished medical doctor at the Gonzaga court. Both were acquainted with Tasso during his stay in Mantua. Ascanio de' Mori had published Giuoco piacevole in 1575 with the same publisher and was made Administrator of Ceresara (a Gonzaga possession) in 1576 holding this position until 1583. Cavallara wrote the introduction to Giuoco piacevole and in this volume, described as a 'first part' receives the dedicated epilogue. No second part ever appeared.For about three hundred years from the end of the thirteenth century until the end of the sixteenth century Northern Italy witnessed prolific production of stories under the name Novelle which are the precursors of our modern prose fiction. The better known authors in the genre are Barberino, Boccaccio, Sacchetti, Fiorentino (from whose Pecorone Shakespeare took the story of the Merchant of Venice), Matteo Bandello (after Boccaccio the most famous), Molza, and Firenzuola. Ascanio de' Mori is less well-known; jealousy, marital deceit, dowries, confidence tricks, and money figure here as they do in other collections. Each story, with a short dedicatory preface and on occasion a short verse, is dedicated to a Gonzaga or other notable. Mantua, Francesco Osanna, 1585.